THE FINANCIER
four and five per cent. on the total transaction himself.
It wasn't much; but since he was doing this all the time,
and people were friendly to him, more and more so all
the time, it can be seen how it was that in the first
year he cleared six thousand dollars over and above
all expenses. That wasn't much; but he was augment-
ing it in another way which meant great profit in the
future.
This was in the new street-car stocks which were being
issued, and in which, the future of which, he believed
firmly. Before the first line, which was a shambling
affair, had been laid in Front Street, the streets of Phil-
adelphia had been crowded with hundreds of rough,
springless omnibuses rattling over rough, hard cobble-
stones. Now, thanks to the idea of John Stephenson, in
New York, the double-rail-track idea had come, and be-
sides the line in Fifth and Sixth streets (the cars running
out one street and back another), which had paid splen-
didly from the start, there were many other lines pro-
posed or under way. The city was as crazy to see
street-cars replace omnibuses as it was to see railroads
replace canals. There was opposition, of course. There
always is. The cry of probable monopoly was raised.
Disgruntled and defeated omnibus owners and drivers
groaned aloud.
Cowperwood, like his father, was one of those who be-
lieved in the future of the street-railway. The latter was
timid; but Frank, believing, risked all he could spare on
new issues of stock shares in new companies. He was
not one of those who, like the average rank outsider, seize
unwittingly whatever is thrown them by an inside ring.
If possible, he wanted to be on the inside himself ; but in
this matter of the street-railways, having been so young
when they started, and not having arranged his financial
connections to any great degree, it was difficult to man-
age. Still, he knew that they were going to pay, and pay
largely. The Fifth and Sixth Street line, which had been
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